WELCOME TO YOUR MIND | 2023/2024 | interactive installation

The DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award exhibition at Gallery 924 in the Indianapolis Arts Council, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

‘Welcome To Your Mind’l is an interactive installation honoring the power of human form and its self healing through art and nature. As an immigrant from Brazil, I’m combining the essence of the Amazon rainforest with American nature, with exploration of a new body of work introducing several new techniques. The installation ‘Welcome to Your Mind’ is composed of two parts. The first part is to present the tools that are being suggested changing the mindset, self healing. A workbench with objects representing the four elements of nature: earth, water, air and fire, are  displayed along with artworks and personal objects, as an altar. The artworks are oil paintings of my ancestors from the Amazon rainforest and amulets in the form of necklaces. The second part is the ‘taking action’. Space, the fifth element of nature, is a dress sculpture knitted with hand spun rose American fiber and dyed with Brazilian coffee. Words of affirmation, healing words, are typed on paper made with recycled fibers that are embedded with wildflower seeds. Viewers are invited to participate in the installation by collecting the papers attached on the dress to take some of the healing words home with them. They can plant the paper with wildflower seeds and vibrant words, creating a bond with the Amazon rainforest and American soil with renewed vibrant energy.